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EVE Vanguard 'First Strike' playtest for Omega players set for early December

CCP's first-person shooter addition to EVE Online is set to have one of its first pre-alpha playtests for Omega accounts.

TJ Denzer

November 22, 2023 9:05 AM

Image via CCP Games

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One of the more interesting things to come out of CCP Games this year was the announcement of an first-person shooter spinoff known as EVE Vanguard, and soon select players are going to be able to give it a try. CCP has announced a “First Strike” pre-alpha playtest for the game. It will be available to EVE Online Omega Account holders and has been dated for a few days in early December.

CCP Games announced the “First Strike” playtest for EVE Vanguard via new details on the spinoff’s website. The First Strike event will begin at 4 a.m. PT / 7 a.m. ET on December 7 and run until the same time on December 11, 2023. During this time, EVE Online Omega subscribers will be able to select an EVE Vanguard character profile on the launcher screen and be able to partake in one of the first consumer-available builds of the game.

EVE Vanguard is a very ambitious endeavor for CCP Games. Born out of the ashes of a previous FPS known as Dust 514, EVE Vanguard is being built in Unreal Engine 5 and is meant to be a compliment to EVE Online rather than a separate entity. As shared in our recent conversation with the devs, the progression of EVE Online events (especially with the recent pirate chaos that came with the Havoc expansion) will very likely effect game events in EVE Vanguard. Likewise, EVE Vanguard events have the potential to affect EVE Online. It sounds great in theory, but there’s likely a lot of testing to be done as CCP aims to collect feedback and tailor the experience to what fans would like to see and play.

With this First Strive pre-alpha playtest set for early December, it looks like players will finally be able to dip their toes into what CCP has been working on in EVE Vanguard. Stay tuned as we continue to watch for further details and updates on Vanguard, and EVE Online as a whole.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.